In my former life I was an actress with the Royal Shakespeare Company and spent a couple of years performing in the Bard’s hometown, Stratford-on-Avon. This beautiful little town is in the heart of the British Countryside and is well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in that part of the UK. The only way I could learn my lines was to go for very long walks, and given the scenery, it wasn’t a hardship. I loved to ruminate on the fact that Shakespeare wrote 
many of his plays while walking. In those days, they obviously had to walk – gazillions of miles a week. I learned that the Iambic Pentameter that so many of his plays are written in (the te-tum, te-tum, te-tum verse,) was created by the rhythm of his walk. If you try saying any of his verse while walking, you’ll see what I mean.
I was reminded of this just recently when I was in Georgia visiting my in-laws. It was so beautiful that I took a long walk every single day alone. For me, walking is not only a form of meditation, but also a space where I am at my most creative. While walking, I manage to break through much of my resistance and due to the spaciousness of the open skies, allow myself to go beyond mental limitations.
While walking I can transform my mental “What if”s” from negative to positive: Instead of “What is such and such an awful thing were to happen?’ or “What if I can’t do such & such?” – I can switch to “What if there is a benevolent force that is guiding me?”, or “What if an amazing miracle were to occur whereby…?”.
Walking is a meditation for me when I’m able to have a mental conversation with God. With the rhythm of each step I find it easy to talk to a Higher Power about my concerns, needs, desires, hopes, etc. When in pain, I can also mentally talk about that. There’s something about the energy of movement and that comforting rhythm that makes me feel grounded enough to connect to my truth.
With every year of attempting to be a little greener, I try to walk more and more. Aside from hiking, which is often a different kind of walk, as the purpose is 
to get my heart rate up and to tone my tush; or dog walking when all my focus is on keeping the mutts out of trouble, I’m walking to stores and friend’s houses more. I’ll often sling on my favorite Mobile Edge Eco backpack and take off on foot for the nearest coffee shop for business meetings too. For a girl like me who is always in a horrible hurry, it’s a great way of slowing myself down. Yes – I can jump in the car and get to the store/meeting in 10 minutes, but I can just as easily carve an extra 40 minutes out of my day to walk there and back – no gym necessary!
As if all those benefits of walking weren’t enough, the simple act of walking consciously – as in feeling very part of my foot on the ground (great if you can walk somewhere barefoot,) makes me feel ever-so-grateful. The very fact that I can walk, for miles if needs be, when many people because of physical limitations cannot, makes me feel happy for a very simply thing. On a really awful day, walking often works.
Finally, when I used to teach yoga, I would spend a lot of time teaching Tadasana (AKA Mountain Pose). This is the simple 
standing pose – the blueprint for every other pose. When taught correctly, this pose will correct your posture, elongate your spine, draw in your lower belly and draw your shoulders back. While walking, try to remember what you’ve learned in your yoga class. If you’ve never taken yoga – simply imagine there is a cord extending out of the crown on your head, and as you walk imagine an invisible hand pulling this cord up- up towards the sky. As your neck lengthens, allow your shoulders to drop – take a deep breath in through your nose and out through your mouth.
The great thing about walking is that you can’t really do too much of it. Studies have shown that walking 40 minutes, 3 or 4 times a week, not only significantly reduces risk of heart disease, but also sharpens the mental faculties of those who are fifty or older – worth walking for if you ask me!
